Maggie Haberman reveals why Trump likes RFK Jr.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. Suspending his presidential bid today and throwing his support behind Donald Trump. Brian Todd is joining us right now with more Brian, RFK Jr. Has had more than his fair share of strange, rather memorable, often very controversial moments since launching his campaign. Right. Wolf. This campaign has been so bizarre, so fraught with strange stories and accusations that several members of Robert Kennedy Jr. S own family are calling this whole thing sad. Analysts say it's put a stain on the reputation of one of America's great political dynasties. In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic past electoral victory. Robert F Kennedy Jr, who started his run as a Democrat then switched to being an independent, bowed out of the race and endorses Donald Trump. And with that, one of the most unique presidential bids in American history comes to a close. This isn't just your typical bizarre campaign. This is almost carnival like. In May of this year, Kennedy claimed that a parasitic worm had once entered his brain and died, which he said led to, quote, severe brain fog and trouble with his short term memory. He actually joked about it. Maybe a brain worm ate that part of my memory. A few weeks ago, in a rambling video posted on X. Kennedy admitted that about ten years ago, he was driving in upstate New York when he found the carcass of a dead bear that had been hit by a vehicle. So I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was with the skin, the bear. Kennedy said he got sidetracked by several events that day. Couldn't go home. Didn't know what to do with the bear, so he decided to leave the carcass in New York's Central Park and make it look like a bike accident, so that it would be amusing for whoever found it or something. The whole story, the wild, weird story that RFK Jr told about the bear cub and how it got into Central Park has really made an impact and not a positive one for him. This summer, an article in Vanity Fair had a photo of Kennedy appearing to pantomime eating a dog carcass. Kennedy denied it was a dog. It's actually me eating a goat in Patagonia. That same Vanity Fair article published allegations that Kennedy had sexually assaulted a former nanny for his family. Kennedy sidestepped the accusations. I am not a church boy. All this following repeated episodes where Kennedy baselessly called the Covid 19 vaccines unsafe and espoused outlandish conspiracy theories about the vaccines. Covid 19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and end up in black people. The people who are opposed to me are asking and and Chinese. It's all led to a precipitous fall from grace for the son of an American political icon. Today, after he dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump. Five of Kennedy siblings issued a statement saying it's, quote, a sad ending to a sad story. Donald Trump has said he'd be open to appointing Robert Kennedy Jr to a position in his administration if Trump wins in November. The analysts we spoke to say if Trump does that, it could create real problems for him, starting with the fact that because of his past behavior, it would be very tough to get Kennedy confirmed in Congress. Wolf. Brian Todd reporting for us. Brian, thanks very much. I want to dig deeper right now with CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman. She's a senior political correspondent for The New York Times as well. Maggie, thanks for joining us. The New Yorker wrote this in a profile of RFK Jr earlier this month. And let me let me read it to our viewers. In a recent text exchange, Kennedy told one person that Trump was a, quote, terrible human being, the worst president ever, and barely human. He is probably a sociopath. Close quote. So how did this unlikely endorsement today of Trump come about? So, Wolf, these are two very transactional people. And, Robert Kennedy Jr has been looking around, you know, trying to make some kind of an endorsement, deal with both candidates. The Washington Post reported recently that he had approached the Harris campaign, about possibly supporting her and then getting a meeting and there was no meeting. But Trump has been much more receptive. Remember, these are two people, Kennedy and Trump, who met during Trump's 2017 transition. Bobby Kennedy claimed that Trump was going to appoint him to some kind of a vaccine commission. And then Trump's aides quietly distanced Trump from it. But Trump is open to having discussions with him. He likes him. Trump has a credential list and he likes the Kennedy name. So this all began shortly before the Republican National Convention. And it's been moving toward this. I think that RFK Jr clearly sees he does not have a real path in this race, and this is a way to be relevant. Trump called in to Fox and Newsmax, immediately after Kamala Harris's speech last night. Listen to part of what he said. Maggie, that it was a lot of complaining. She didn't talk about China. She didn't talk about fracking. She didn't talk about crime. She didn't talk about 70% of our people are living in poverty. She didn't talk about the trade deficit. You didn't talk about child trafficking, that she's allowed to happen because she was the borders are. She presided over the weakest border in the history of our country. By the way, the beeping you heard appears to be Trump inadvertently hitting buttons on his phone. So what are these interviews Maggie say about his mindset now, look, he's very reactive, in all things, when he is not in command. And we have seen this over the course of the last nine years that he's been in politics or in the political arena. you know, he is he is clearly, you know, jarred by her. he has been trying to get back into the national conversation for several weeks now, ever since President Biden announced he wasn't running for reelection. He's doing that with his RFK endorsement today. He did it last night. You know, he is trying to point out the areas where she separated herself, at least by omission from President Joe Biden, President Biden, President Biden, excuse me, in terms of not tying herself to their joint record, there are a number of Trump's aides who would like him to, basically just be saying Biden, Harris, Biden, Harris all the time. And so that's his his way of doing that. We'll see if he can sustain it. I thought it was interesting that when President Obama took the stage at the Democratic convention, he made a comment about Trump's obsession with crowds, with his crowd sizes. I want to play that clip. Listen to this. There's the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes. How is that moment landed with the former president? So it both of the Obama's speeches got under his skin. He is very reactive to both of them. We have seen that since 2011, when Trump spread the lie that, President Obama was not, was was possibly born in Kenya and therefore illegitimate to be president. I think you're going to see more of this. What I was struck by, Wolf, in this convention is there was a pretty focused message about Trump, and we heard it over and over again from the Obamas, from the vice president, from others that, you know, he is a he is a rich guy who cares about his rich friends. but what you also saw were, were comments that I think were designed to beat Trump. That was one of them. the more that Trump reacts self-destructive, the better Democrats feel it is for them. Important point. Maggie Haberman, thank you very much for your excellent analysis.